EINDHOVEN.- Art is remembering, imagining and feeling. It is part of who we are, but especially of what we do. Art is connected to all parts of our daily lives. With this in mind, the exhibition Art is a Verb, on view from 7 December 2024 to 27 April 2025, makes a plea for the activating power of art. Artists Libia Castro & Ólafur Ólaffson, al­yené, Svetlana Romanova & Chelsea Tuggle, Cristina Flores Pescorán and the BKP collective show how art gives us tools to live our lives. This exhibition is the eighth in the annual Positions exhibition series, in which several solo presentations by international artists at the Van Abbemuseum enter into dialogue with each other. Art is a Verb is one of the last exhibitions director Charles Esche works on before his departure from the Van Abbemuseum at the end of 2024.

A form of action

Science and welfare, economy and ecology: art touches on all parts of our life. In times when the importance of art and culture is under pressure in politics, the artists and collectives in Art is a Verb show that art is more than a luxury product. It is a form of action. A way of asking questions about the period we live in and where we make space for underexposed stories and oppressed communities. Art and culture come under pressure in today's political landscape. Therefore, the museum is developing a programme of activities together with (small­scale) creative hubs in Eindhoven, which now more than ever need to prove their right to exist. Together, they invite visitors to experience the urgency of art, especially for the city of Eindhoven.

Five artists and collectives

The work of the artists involved focuses not only on the aesthetics of their work, but above all on ethics. They strive for work that actively contributes to a more beautiful world; inside and out. does so by working from their own (family) history. Most works in Art is a Verb are commissioned for this exhibition and can be seen in the Netherlands for the first time:

Libia Castro & Ólafur Ólafsson: In Search of Magic... ­ A Proposal for A New Constitution for the Republic of Iceland (2017­continuing)

With the installation In Search of Magic..., Castro and Ólafsson present a polyphonic performance demonstration, created in collaboration with activists, composers, musicians and audiences, that brings to life the proposed, but politically blocked, new progressive Icelandic constitution of 2011 and demands its implementation. At times when our own Dutch rule of law and democracy are under pressure, In Search of Magic... challenges visitors at the Van Abbemuseum to consider the possibilities for positive change to our own constitution. Libia Castro & Ólafur Ólafsson's second project in Art is a Verb is:

The Rehabilitation of The Invisible House: Chapter 1 (*La Casa Invisible, 2022 ­ present)

In 2007, a group of citizen collectives and creatives in Málaga breathed new life into an abandoned building, calling it La Casa Invisible and declaring it a citizen­run socio cultural centre. With its survival threatened by political choices (including tourism and gentrification), the artists initiated The Rehabilitation of La Casa Invisible ­ Chapter 1 with La Casa Invisible and architect Jose Manuel López Osorio. There are parallels between the situation in Málagá and the growing technology sector in Eindhoven. For Art is a Verb, Castro and Ólafsson are therefore developing, together with local initiatives, the new work The Right to Eindhoven ­ Circuit of Commons. This project will be worked on for the duration of the exhibition.

al­yené: tœn:y: (returned)

Born in the Autonomous Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), the largest republic within Russia, artist al­yené's work explores the gaps in the collective and cultural memory of her native region. These were created as a result of the invasion of the Russian Federation. Her work embraces the (un)stability, (un)completeness and (un)permanence visible in the gaps in Sacha's archives. The interplay of video installations and textile collages bridges the distance between past and present. All with the aim of questioning the official historiography of the Republic of Sakha in the context of Russia's process of ongoing militarisation.

Svetlana Romanova & Chelsea Tuggle: My Roman Empire

Svetlana Romanova and Chelsea Tuggle also put the traditions and culture of the republic of Sakha (Yakutia) at the centre of their work, alongside traditions and culture of the ‘Russian’ Far East (Siberia). On a multitude of video screens, visitors see residents of Sakha in the republic and in exile during their daily activities. They also see various international peripheral artists from other parts of the world. The videos connect indigenous artists around the world by looking at the everyday, thus combating the invisibility of indigenous Siberian identity. In the midst of the film installation is a physical, shared map of the world; a multimedia work as a physical bridge between international peripheral artists. This denounces the invisibility and misrepresentation of the Republic of Sakha and its inhabitants, something that has similarities with the same invisibility and misrepresentation of the other international periphery artists in the work.

Cristina Flores Pescorán: various works

Peruvian Cristina Flores Pescorán is showing four artworks in two rooms. In her practice, she brings weaving techniques of the indigenous, pre­Hispanic, Chancay culture into dialogue with other disciplines. As with the other makers, the history of her ancestors plays a major role in Flores Pescorán's work. Her textile and performance work explores art as a means of action. Action towards remembering and healing, of both the artist and her experiences of illness itself.

BKP: Kampung Adat Wates

In the final room, the work of Indonesian collective BKP marks the start of a long­term collaboration between the Van Abbemuseum and Museum Wakare in Kampung Wates in Majalegka, Indonesia. The Wates community has been in conflict with the Indonesian air force over the use of their land since shortly after 1945. By claiming indigenous status, the community is trying to reclaim its sovereignty through art and culture and give new meaning to the concept of indigenous. A concept whose origins lie in the Dutch colonial system.

The installation in the museum consists of a large textile work made by the women of the community in Wates. A video made at the Van Abbemuseum earlier this year shows a ceremony in which the book Adatrecht, written by the Dutch coloniser, is repatriated. During the ceremony, soil and organisms from Kampung Wates were inserted into the book, which will further decompose the book during the exhibition.